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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24672805">The Leap</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lieju/pseuds/Lieju'>Lieju</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Indiana Jones Series</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>1950's, M/M, au where rene survives the ark, so crystal skull but better because it's more gay</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 06:06:57</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,409</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24672805</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lieju/pseuds/Lieju</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>1957. <br/>It had been a long time coming.<br/>”You used to ask me, every time we ran into one another. For us to be partners. For me to join you.”</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Rene Belloq/Henry "Indiana" Jones</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. I want to keep doing this forever</h2></a>
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    <p>It was bit of a weird time and place to realize you were in love, Indiana supposed.<br/>He deepened the kiss, burying his fingers in René's white hair.<br/>Maybe not that bit. Kissing seemed a very logical action to be doing at an important moment like this.<br/>Less so the fact they were standing at a darkened pier, with René's hired thugs laying unconscious behind Indiana. Or that the man Indiana was kissing had been pointing a gun at his head just moments before.<br/>Of course René wouldn't have actually pulled the trigger.<br/>Indiana was reasonably certain.<br/>Indiana pulled away to catch his breath.<br/>René groaned. ”I was so close...”<br/>It was true. If Indiana hadn't gotten here just in time the Frenchman would have been at the sea by now, the small jade idol in his grasp.<br/>Indiana pulled René into an embrace once more.<br/><em>I want to keep doing this forever.</em><br/>There it was again. The thought that made it impossible for Indiana to pretend this was just something casual.<br/>When they had started doing this years ago, when during a confrontation angry Indiana had slammed René into a wall and he had looked up at him in that way-<br/>Indiana could pretend it was just him blowing off steam, back then. Whatever Belloq's motives might have been, Indiana hadn't cared to think about them.<br/>But eventually it had become a routine, slipped into their rivalry and fitted in there so nicely Indiana could have admitted to himself there was real attraction there. But it had been fine, they both found each other attractive and knew what they were getting with these encounters. It had changed nothing in the grand scheme of things.<br/>But now suddenly the arrangement of chance encounters in the field with no strings attached that had once felt so perfect for the two of them wasn't enough.<br/>Indiana kissed his neck and René tilted his head to allow Indy better access. The gesture was familiar to Indy by now. So many things about René were, these days.<br/>Indiana wanted more...<br/>He wanted to familiarize himself with the ways René acted when fully at ease, the way he looked like when just waking up after a well-slept night, what he did when taking time off...<br/>Indiana wanted their routine to change so that he'd wake up next to René every morning-<br/>Indiana moved and pain in his back snapped him out of his reverie. A result of a blow he had received from one of the currently unconscious men.<br/>Not a part of this arrangement he would miss.<br/>With some shock he noted he had already made his choice. Was he really going to do it?<br/>But why not? What was holding him back any longer?<br/>He was getting old, they both were.<br/>Maybe if Brody was still alive... Indiana abandoning his job at the university would have been a blow to the old man...<br/>The job Indy might not even have anymore. The time he had been proud of his country had passed with the rise of paranoia and the all-too familiar anti-intellectualism...<br/>He knew for certain he was by now on several government watch lists for nothing more than being willing to entertain and teach the theories of brilliant archaeologists who just happened to have Communist sympathies... Maybe when he showed up at the university this time they would decide he was more trouble than worth and fire him.<br/>Or worse.<br/>He was tired.<br/>He pulled away to look at René in the moonlight. He too was older now, his thinning hair white, the wrinkles more clear now around his piercing eyes.<br/>But it was still René Belloq.<br/><em>Am I really going to do this?</em><br/>”There's nothing I can possess that you cannot take away, hm..?”<br/><em>Like my heart. You played a long game but you did it. Bastard.</em><br/>René looked confused. ”What?”<br/>Indiana smiled.<em> He might be a bastard but he is my bastard...</em><br/>Out loud, he said: ”You only need to ask, René.”<br/>”Ask?”<br/>Indiana reached to pull out the jade idol from his satchel and handed it to René.<br/>”You used to ask me, every time we ran into one another. For us to be partners. For me to join you.”<br/>The unguarded look on René's face made it clear enough. He had arrived to the same conclusion when it came to his feelings ages ago and Indiana was just now catching up.<br/>”Would you?” René asked. ”Join me in the shadowy realm I inhabit?”<br/>Indiana smiled. ”Yes.”</p>
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<a name="section0002"><h2>2. What Changed?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Indiana opened his eyes in the sunlit bedroom. He stretched on the small bed. Just big enough for two grown men, but only barely.</p><p>Indiana turned his head to look at the form laying next to him.</p><p>René was still asleep, mouth slightly open. Despite the fact the two had known each other for decades, and many of those years intimately, it hadn't been often Indy had seen the other man genuinely unguarded-</p><p>René's eyes shot open in shock and he sat up.</p><p>He was already reaching towards the bedside dresser where Indy could guess his pistol was stashed when he seemed to fully wake up and realize the situation.</p><p>René sighed. “<em>Putain de merde</em>, you almost gave me a heart attack.”</p><p>Carefully, Indy pulled him back to bed. “Got a shock from seeing me the first thing in the morning?”</p><p>René returned to bed and allowed Indy to embrace him. “Not used to waking up next to <em>anyone</em>.”</p><p>Indiana ran his fingers through René's hair until he felt the figure against him relax.</p><p>He realized something. “This bed here... It's meant for one person...”</p><p>“Of course. I'm not in habit of inviting guests to this house.”</p><p>Indiana mused on this. The house on the countryside near Paris was small but cozy, full of books and files and neatly catalogued archaeological artifacts. It hadn't been a house Indiana had known about until René had taken him there yesterday. He was starting to get the feeling no one else apart from René had known about this place. Indy had known about the apartment in Paris, but now that he thought about it that had felt less personal than this, with art pieces and archaeological artifacts chosen based on the impression they'd make on the guests. Here golden idols sat next to broken pieces of pottery that were interesting only for few experts in the world. It had been late last night when they had arrived so Indy had only gotten a quick look at René's private collection but he was very curious what kind of things René had wanted to keep here, only for himself.</p><p>And, Indiana supposed, for him too now.</p><p>“You need a bigger bed,” Indiana told him.</p><p>René looked up.</p><p>“I mean if we will be living here,” Indiana said.</p><p>“You're really doing this.” He sounded like he still couldn't believe it.</p><p>Indy nodded. “Yes.”</p><p>“Why? I mean why now? What changed?”</p><p>“I don't know. I couldn't keep doing it anymore. Things change. I-”</p><p>Indy almost told him 'I realized I loved you' but while that was true it wasn't fully it.</p><p>“I realized I trusted you,” he said, remembering the moment at the moonlit pier. They might have been rivals, enemies even, and their clashes had been violent at times, but for the longest time there had been trust there. Lines they wouldn't cross. The knowledge on how the other operated that allowed them to be civil, even friendly with each other when they were not directly opposed.</p><p>Indiana kissed René's forehead. “And that I wanted you, and that I could trust you. That I wanted to trust you.”</p><p>He struggled to put his feelings into words. It had never been something that came easily for him.</p><p>“You were always there, it feels like. First you were my friend, and then you were my enemy, and then I don't know... And I figured if I wanted to keep going it would... Things have changed. This all, whatever was between us, had to change too, so...” he trailed off.</p><p>René smiled and it was a soft smile, the kind Indiana hadn't really seen on his face before.</p><p>“I will get a bigger bed.”</p><p>He lifted his head, but stopped, as if changing his mind about going for a kiss.</p><p>“Hm?”</p><p>“Morning breath, I think,” René said. “I should brush my teeth before-”</p><p>Indiana pulled him into a kiss anyway.</p>
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